Wednesday October 10, 2007
Significance of venous blood gas

Venous blood gasses are easy to obtained but very under-utilized in ICUs.

In ICU setting where hypotension and hypoperfusion are very common, it is very important to know that although information about arterial blood gases is needed to assess pulmonary gas exchange, in the presence of severe hypoperfusion, the hypercapnia and acidemia at the level of the tissues are detected better and correlate more in central venous blood.



References: click to get abstracts

Assessing acid-base status in circulatory failure. Differences between arterial and central venous blood - Volume 320:1312-1316, , May 18. 1989

Comparison of Blood Gas and Acid-Base Measurements in Arterial and Venous Blood Samples in Patients with Uremic Acidosis and Diabetic Ketoacidosis in the Emergency Room - American Journal of Nephrology 2000;20:319-323

Agreement between arterial and central venous values for pH, bicarbonate, base excess, and lactate.. Emerg. Med. J. 23: 622-624